Eight-Block Housetop quilt

ca. 1975

Not on view

This quilt, with its engaging overall design composed of eight Housetop blocks, was made with corduroy remnants from a large job undertaken by the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative founded in 1966 to help local women make money to support their families. In 1972 the large department store chain Sears-Roebuck and Company placed an order with the cooperative for thousands of corduroy pillow covers. Leftover pieces of fabric from the job were sold to the quilters at bargain prices; tiny scraps were given away. As a result, many quilts from the mid-1970s incorporate pieces of Sears corduroy. Often in saturated shades typical of the era, the fabric brought an entirely new aesthetic to many of the quilters’ works.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

References

Title: Eight-Block Housetop quilt
Artist: Lola Pettway (American, born Boykin, Alabama, 1941)
Date: ca. 1975
Medium: Top: cotton; back: cotton and cotton-polyester blend
Dimensions: 84 1/2 in. × 71 in. (214.6 × 180.3 cm)
Classification: Textiles
Credit Line: Gift of Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2014
Object Number: 2014.548.48
Rights and Reproduction: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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